Bible Commentaries

Leviticus 23:43

God made the children of Israel to dwell in booths,—made in the sense of causing to dwell safely. And God would have the children of the people who dwelt in booths keep this fact in remembrance generation after generation.

I. The text reminds us of conditions of life very like this dwelling in booths. (1) A feeble body, answering its purpose many years, is like dwelling in booths. (2) Providing by slender means all that is really needful for a large family is like dwelling in booths. (3) A morbidly sensitive spirit kept sound is like dwelling in booths. (4) A nature prone to gross evil and kept from the power of temptation is like dwelling in booths. (5) A Church preserved in peace and unity, with the elements of evil within it and evil influences around it, is another example of God making to dwell in booths. (6) To have lived in a day of small things, and gradually to have come into a day of great things, is to have been made to dwell in booths.

II. The text exhibits God as sufficient for us in the most necessitous and dangerous circumstances. (1) God hath in Himself all that is necessary for the working out of His will. (2) God uses agents and instruments, but is not dependent on any of the agents and instruments which He employs. (3) God is conscious of His sufficiency. (4) There is but one thing which prevents our fully experiencing the sufficiency of God, and that is sin, wilful and persistent sin.

III. The text points out a duty of remembrance which we are all liable to neglect. God's mercy to a family in previous generations places the present members of that family under obligation: "That your generations may know." The knowledge which God requires is (1) knowledge in the sense of information, and (2) knowledge in the sense of recognition. The recognition is of mercies in the past. To this God attaches so much importance that He founds a festival as a means of securing it.

S. Martin, Rain upon the Mown Grass, p. 47.

References: Leviticus 23:42.—Bishop Woodford, Sermons on Subjects from the Old Testament, p. 1. Leviticus 23:44.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 119. Lev 23-27—J. Monro Gibson, The Mosaic Era, p. 223. Leviticus 24:5-6, and Leviticus 25:9, Leviticus 25:10.—J. Fleming, The Gospel in Leviticus, pp. 91, 123.